I have a beautiful paint technique called shadow striping; you'll never believe how easy it is to do!

Start with a nice base coat in a flat finish; You want to paint the base a few days in advance so that the tape you're using for the technique will not stick to the finish.

Working from the center of the wall outward, decide how wide you want your stripes and use a pencil to mark the locations of each stripe. Then use a level and some low tack painter's tape to mark the edges of the stripes on your wall.

You will only be painting every other stripe so make sure that the edges of the tape line-up with your stripe-line on the on that is being painted; and overlap into the other. Stick one more piece of tape in the center of each stripe that's not being painted as a reminder to stay out of that area.